Coakley 49, Brown 47

That’s how Scott Rasmussen has it among likely voters in Massachusetts. A week ago, Coakley led in Rasmussen’s survey by nine points. The hardest thing about a special election, of course, is predicting who will turn out. Given the trend toward Brown and the volatility of a special election, the race can be considered a toss-up.
Perhaps Rasmussen’s most striking finding is that likely voters who are not affiliated with either party favor Brown by 71-23 percent. More evidence that the Democrats are losing independent voters.
UPDATE: It turns out that Coakley can’t spell “Massachusetts,” either. It’s a hackneyed observation to be sure, but can you imagine what would happen to a Republican candidate, who, locked in a neck-and-neck race with a national profile and potentially historic implications, misspelled the name of his or her own state? What do you think would be said about Sarah Palin if her TV ads misspelled “Alaska”?